Mt Si

 

I was going to go hiking up Little Si, but when I got there, the parking lot was full, so I headed up the rode to Mt Si.  The parking lot is big there, but there was still only enough room to squeeze in a couple of cars.  Having a ten year old used Toyota, I’m probably a lot more comfortable with squeezing than the owners of the new cars I parked next to. There were blue skies and the temperature was a hot 72 degrees, but the trail winds through the trees and in the shade.

It is a nicely grade trail for the first 100 feet from the parking lot and then changes into the usual steep up hill rocky path.

 

The ferns have responded from the snow melt and wet spring. They were lush and covered the hill hide in large groves.

acres and acres of them.  Just like the ones people use to pay $15.00 for in the 80’s to hang in their bathrooms.

The salmon berries were growing and hadn’t been harvested by the hikers yet.  I’m sure they will be but a memory in a couple of weeks.

And there were the many pleasant places to stop and gawk. Here is the view from my lunch spot.

I haven’t hiked Mt Si in ten years because it is a lot of work, full of people and has a view of North Bend, which is okay if you can’t afford a vacation to Houston to see the oil derricks, but not as rewarding as say Mt Pilchuck. But Pilchuck is currently under eight feet of snow and so Si was starting to look attractive.  And it is a great walk through the trees.

Kachess ridge

 

I headed over the pass to get some sun shine and to see if I could hike with out getting into snow.  I headed up the silver creek trail by Easton and after 1200 feet elevation gain, I hit the snow.

 

Not wishing to walk through the snow and post holing all of the time, I headed straight up the ridge.  Ridge hikes are usually a lot of fun.  They have open, quite often have a nice breeze and usually have great views, but ridges by their nature tend to either have a lot of ups and downs, or as in this case, just go strait up.  Still it’s better than snow.

 

The snow has been off of the ridge for several weeks, so the wild flowers were starting to come out.

and in the meadows, the lupine, the over achiever of the flower world was in full bloom.

It was a pleasant if somewhat tiring hike.  It looks like it will be several weeks for trails through the trees will be clear of snow.

Oh, and for all of you relatives in Arizona and southern California.  Here is a picture to show you what green looks like.

Pictures of hike

Ainsley Canyon

 

Though it was beautiful here on Saturday Jim and I headed over to eastern Washington  where we wouldn’t run into snow.  It is a beautiful hike.  The meadows have recovered from winter and are lush.  Of course our wet spring really helps that.  There isn’t really a trail in the area, or at least the ones in the guide books aren’t the ones I follow. 

The hike has a bit of everything.  A walk in the forest,

interesting lava rock formations

and if you climb high enough, which requires scrambling up those interesting lava rock formations, great views of the Stuart range.

We went up looking for flowers.  The  arrow leaf balsam root is a little past its prime,

and it’ll be about two weeks before the lupine are in full bloom.

On the way out, we ran across an old homestead or possible a home for summer pasture of cattle.  The area around was planted in alfalfa which should make the elk who currently stay there very very happy.

All in all, it was a sunny day and great to lay in the sun.

Photos from hike

arboretum

 

When I set Wednesday as a hiking day earlier in the week, the weather forecast had been for good weather, but by Wednesday, that was but a dream.  But I still wanted to get out and walk for a couple of hours so I headed down to the arboretum in Seattle, which makes for a very easy hike.  No back pack, no hiking boots, no lugging water and food.  Just me and my camera.

Across from the Japanese tea garden, they have put in four new areas featuring the plants of Washington, Chile, and a couple of other areas whose names  I forget.

The Washington connections has a nice shelter and interpretive center which became very interesting to me when it began to rain. They’ve got a lot of signs up which identify the plants I see when I’m hiking.

The Rhododendrons and azaleas are past their prime, but still enjoyable.  There are some really, really big Rhododendrons here. They are over thirty feet tall.

 

There are enough trails, official and unofficial,  to keep you wandering back and forth for hours. I know, I did it and still didn’t cover all of them.  There are lots of glens, hidden ponds

and surprises around every corner.

There were acres and acres of yellow flowers, just like the ones I’ve been pulling from our flower beds the last three days.  They look very impressive when they cover a two acre meadow. Perhaps I should have left them and just dreamt bigger dreams.

So if it is sunny and you would like to go for a two hour walk near the fine coffee shops and restaurants of Madison Park, head over to the Washington Park Arboretum.

Many many more pictures of the arboretum

Nisqually Delta

 

I had selected Wednesday to hike because the weather report indicated it would be the best day, but when I got up this morning it was raining.  So I headed off t the Nisqually Delta where I figured the rainy pictures of a swamp would be appropriate.   I was pleasantly surprised.  There was no rain and the delta is gorgeous.

It was full of birds

and other animals. (Which did not seem to include insects, which seemed unusual in a salt water estuary.). I even saw a weasel which would set 15 feet in front of me and dart off as soon as I raised my camera.

The delta has a boardwalk that extends for close to two miles over the tide flats.  It has an elevation gain of about six inches.  Dogs and bicycles are not allowed. No sinking up to your knees in the mud, no cuts from the sharp grasses and at least this time, no bugs.  How would you know that you’re hiking?  But if you go, check the tides.  As the tide is coming in, everything in the picture below would be covered with water.

If you are a birder, this is the place to be.

If you just want to have fun, it is still a good place to be and it is only an hour drive away from Seattle.  It has nice rest rooms, good displays along the walk that explain everything in front of you and a gift shop.  What more could you want?  And Norma’s at the end of the exit makes a great hamburger.

 

Pictures from hike

Mt. Rainier

 

It was a beautiful sunny day and though we’ve yet to reach a 70 degree day, it was still perfect for a spring hike.  If you take your snow shoes. The famous fields of flowers at Paradise had avalanche debris instead of avalanche lilies, but any day you can lay in the sun is a great day.

 

I made my way down from the visitor center to Narada Falls.  It would be a great family trip if you had two cars. If you left Seattle at 9:00 you could be at Paradise by 11:30, have a nice lunch, take a couple of hours snow showing down to Narada Falls, head up to Paradise to pick up the second car, have some hot chocolate at the visitor center and then stop for wild mountain blackberry pie on the way out of the park.

A gentle walk through the trees and snow covered meadows. Okay, there are some steep sections, but at no point do you need ice axes or ropes.

and once you’re at the bottom a second car to take you back to Paradise. I had to walk back up the hill to get to my car, but it  is not really that bad.  For those wishing a more exact definition figure one rest stop every hour at which you consume two oreo cookies.  This was a two oreo trip.

And the views are great

Photos from trip

ps.  I did bring home a black berry pie from the Copper Creek Inn.

Blanchard Mountain

 

The temperature was heading into the low sixties and there was only a thin cloud cover.  Looks to be the best hiking day in the next week, so I headed up to Blanchard Mountain, just south of Bellingham.  The first thing I noticed was that it was a lot easier walking when you are not wearing snow shoes.  The trail was a pleasant ramble through the trees with the sunshine and cool breezes off of the water.

Along the way, I passed an woodpecker condominium.  Apparently, the housing crash hit them to, because it was unoccupied.

After three miles, I came to Lilly Lake which, depending on the temperature, can be a beautiful little lake or a mosquito infested bog.  Today it was a beautiful little lake.

I hiked around the lake, spurred on by a sign that read lake loop, and the mistaken belief that the sign implied there was a trail going around the lake.  It was more of a notion that you could get around the lake hacking your way through the bush.  There were fresh signs of beaver, but I didn’t see any in the lake.

The lake had lots of interesting other things in the water and pretty much kept me entertained for an hour as I hiked around it.

 

and the outlet stream was blocked by a log that kept everything floating on the surface back where it formed interesting patterns in the current.

I really, really liked the patterns and took so many pictures of it that even I couldn’t look at them all.  And then it was time to head back down the hill to where the trail broke out

into a lovely view of Padilla Bay.

The peak in the center is Mt Eire in Anacortes and the the right is Guemes Island.

Photos from hike